How Do Vaccines Prevent "Swine Flu" and other Diseases?

August was National Immunization Awareness Month. Major concerns of health professionals are currently focused on a Swine Flu (H1N1) pandemic continuing through 2010 are based on the growing number of cases identified in the United States and internationally earlier this year. Federal health officials have determined that the H1N1 virus is contagious, but it is not known how easily the virus spreads between people. Schools in many states were closed recently as a precaution against the spread of this disease, and are being urged to stay open and encourage students to stay home until they are fever and symptom-free for 24 hours.

As we all know, the "flu" is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. There are two types of flu virus that cause seasonal influenza in humans, influenza A and influenza B. Both viruses are constantly mutating and changing. This is the reason new strains appear almost every year. Sometimes a major change occurs which may cause a global disease outbreak, or pandemic.

Swine Flu is a common respiratory disease in pigs that doesn't usually spread to people. When pigs catch this flu, many get quite sick, and 1-4% die, according to the World Health Organization. In the past, people have sometimes caught swine flu if they worked directly with pigs. However, this strain appears to be a sub-type not seen before in humans or pigs, with genetic material from pigs, birds, and humans. And unlike most cases of swine flu, this version can spread from person to person.

The symptoms of Swine Flu in people are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting. With flu season approaching in November, the single best way to prevent influenza is to get a Flu vaccination each year. About two weeks after vaccination, antibodies develop that protect against influenza virus infection.

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help your students learn more about how vaccines can help to prevent Swine Flu and other diseases: "Vaccines to Prevent Disease."

This and all ProQuest model BookCarts (lesson planning PDF) are customizable, and offer complete, one-stop, inquiry-based learning activities for students. (See our short BookCart video segment inside the all-new eLibrary training video.)

Traditional "research time" often involves repetitive and largely non-productive free-Web 'searching' followed by evaluating the relevancy of hundreds or thousands of search results. Our BookCarts reduce the time lost in searching and evaluating, and reinvest that time on the essentials of critical thinking, problem solving, and presentation of conclusions. BookCarts are easily updated for topics/issues that may be repeatedly assigned each school year, all inside your existing subscription.

Each Cart provides students with:

• Essential questions that help them develop 21st-century critical thinking skills
• Directions that guide them in knowing what to do
• Connections to relevant print resource call numbers
• A 21st-century information literacy standard
• ProQuest models they can use for written reports and presentations.

You won't find this unique combination of inquiry-based learning activity support in one place in any other K-12 online reference resource.

Our complete listing of more than 800 ProQuest Carts by curriculum area (including more than 100 eLibrary Science (ELS) Carts) is available for you to review, then copy this or any other Carts that support your school's curriculum needs for effective inquiry-based learning activities. Each

Title is hyperlinked to a ProQuest Cart. Options for copying and editing, and will be provided automatically when you are logged onto the eLibrary Science Teacher Edition.

• Open your eLibrary Science Teacher Edition by clicking here.
• Click BookCart Admin tab at the top.
• Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
• Type "Vaccines to Prevent Disease" in the Search box.
• Click the COPY icon in the Actions column to the right of this title.
• Click Return to My Local Carts tab to end the copying process.

Edit your new Cart to customize it for your students:

• Click the new BookCart Title—it has "Copy of" as its prefix.
• Delete "Copy of" in the Title.
• Type your name in the Author boxes.
• Type your email address in the email box.
• Optional: Edit the essential questions and any other text in the DESCRIPTIONS box.
• Scroll down and click Save button at bottom
• Return to My Local Carts.
• Your edited Cart is ready for students to use when they click the BookCart tab on the eLibrary Science Search page.

As another flu season approaches in November, the talk about the importance of flu vaccination receives national attention. Students can learn more about vaccines as tools to prevent flu and many other diseases. Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words (or a presentation of at least two minutes and seven slides).

The report should cite at least three resources and address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can add or substitute others):

• How do vaccines work to prevent certain diseases?
• What new technologies are being used to create new vaccines?
• How are vaccines able to cure existing diseases and which ones?
• What responsibility does the government have in creating or promoting development of vaccines?

Type "Vaccines" in the Search box.

Use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

SPREAD THE WORD | DATABASE TOOLKITS @ PROQUEST